Video on women, politics and electoral reform

What's wrong with our democracy?

Women's representation in national governments:

Canada 25 %

UK 22 %

USA 17 %

Some other democracies:

Spain 36 %

Sweden 45 %

Rwanda 56 %

Pushed by the spirit of her great-aunt,Militant Suffragette Gert Harding, Gretchen Kelbaugh searches for ways to elect more women. Leading political scientists from Canada, the USA and the UK and Rt Hon Kim Campbell, the only woman to be head of government in North America, offer many solutions.

In the end, Gretchen and the sassy spirit learn the surprising truth: not only does our type of democracy fail women; it fails almost everyone. And the secret kept by top politicians: most major democracies have fixed the problem long ago.

And if you prefer to let 'nature' take its course, know this: At our current rate, it'll be over 100 years before half our politicians are women.

"So having more women in politics has the impact of shifting the policy debate ... a little bit more to the left .... In that way the policy-makers will really be reflecting the diversity of interests of Canadians as opposed to the interests of male Canadians." Joanna Everitt

Canadian Suffragette Gert Harding inspires filmmaker

Why would I make an educational documentary about women and politics?

Because I'm haunted. I'm haunted by the spirit of Gertrude Harding. Auntie Gert, my mother's aunt, started haunting me a couple years ago. In her 20's, she belonged to the most radical group of women ever to fight for a women's equality: the Militant Suffragettes of Great Britain. Without their violent agitation, British women -- I should say, wealthy white British women -- might not have been granted the vote when War ended in 1918.

But now Auntie Gert's dead. You'd think that my having written her biographymight keep her spirit out of my hair. First I start noticing articles in newspapers:

"Numbers of Elected Women Down"

"All 10 City Councillors Men".

And then the story that brings home the absurdity of it all: a committee formed of members of my provincial legislature looked into whether to enact a law forcing companies to pay women the same wage as men for doing work of equal value -- a Pay Equity Law. Because there were so few elected women, it turned out that the committee was comprised of ... 11 men. And what did they decide?

Here are world rankings with respect to % women in government:

Canada 46th

United Kingdom 58th

USA 80th

Why do we take it for granted that politicians should be mostly men? We let men make laws that affect women differently from them. We let our leaders -- almost all men -- appoint mainly men to be judges, to sit in judgment of other men who might have punched their wives or threatened their ex-girlfriends. Does this make sense?

Join me on my journey to hear why everything from poverty to foreign policy will be different when we change our menocracy to a true democracy. And learn how most other major democracies elect many more women than we do.

One hundred years ago my Auntie Gert and thousands of other suffragists in the UK and North America fought for political equality for women. What do you say we finish the job? <TOP>